In an elementary stage of symbol design, designer should be aware of basic fundamentals which create a good symbol. Understanding of figure and ground, principles of lines, shape and form are few essentials without which one should not proceed. Other than these, there are significant questions such as “Why do we need an identity?” “Do non-living things have an identity?, “How does it affect an organization or a product?”

Myriad examples of logos, symbols, and icons, whether typographic, descriptive or abstract can be found in numerous books which are endorsed by principles of basic design. An attempt to search figure and ground relationships with explorations in negative space has resulted in numerous solutions for Roman Script (English). Most of them can be found on the internet and in books. But, there still lies a lot of potential for Indian designers to exploit the typographic quality of local languages, (Devanagari or Assamese scripts).

Task 04:
You have to create a small symbol for identification of your hostel rooms. Your creation should be combination of numerals and letterforms (i.e., your hostel room No. and your 'name' or 'surname'). A combination of these two script elements should emerge as your solution. For example (See Fig. 4.1). You can scale, rotate, or shrink, (but cannot distort or skew) to create a unique identity, which would be reminiscent of your personality (dynamic, imaginative, or extraordinary). This act of depicting your identity visually can be transformed into nameplates on the doors of your hostel rooms or stickers (labels) to personalize your belongings.